An American walks into a bar...

Football is like spirituality. You have a player. They are part of a team. The team is a part of a community who identifies with and roots for them. The player is part of something bigger. Much like the person who believes in God. They might not see God, much like the player who doesn't see the community of people watching the game on tv, but they know they are there.

This metaphor of religion was brought to me by a French speaking Polish man in a bar. He is a communist (so he wasn't getting my número de telephone). Lol. I am a capitalist. He believes capitalism is bad because poor people are giving money to rich people. I believe communism is bad because it is lazy people taking money from motivated people. I even talked to a socialist from England who said he is a socialist because there are children in 3rd world countries dying from drinking dirty water and "we" need a system to do something about that.

It's amazing, I mean truly amazing to me that some people can actually say, with a straight face that capitalism is slavery. It also scares me that people can be devoted to communism, a theory that has literally NEVER worked. Look at Greece!

I wonder where all of these big bad rich people came from anyways? Did money just fall out of the sky and land on them? Are they so devoted to being a "rich person," they will steal money from the poor or kill kids in third world countries?

Even in the bar I was sitting in trying to explain in a mix of English, French and jesters how the BAR we are in is a perfect example of why capitalism works I could see I was wasting my breathe. He really believes that rich people take all of that money they make and hide it under a mattress. They gobble it up and make it disappear. It's gone once the rich person has it. Maybe they are burning it in their fire places? This stolen money, cause if they are spending it, on say a 100k car, someone has to build that car, therefore it is creating a job (or many in fact if you think about the sales people, construction workers who built the dealership, accountants to work for the car maker and dealer, even the janitor, car detailers, mechanics to maintain the car...) so that can't be happening.

I did appreciate his belief in God though. It felt good to have him bring it up. At least I'm not as alone on my feelings that I don't need to go to church or be active in an organized religion to feel close to God.

Not a bad night, all things considered. But seriously? A communist? Ugh!